Combination-cipher



(No Model.)

T. GRUAZ. Q

COMBINATION GIPHER.

No. 288,883. Patented Aug. 28, 1883.

UNITED STATES PATENT Oriucn.

. TIMOTHY GRUAZ, OF HIGHLAND, ILLINOIS.

COMBINATION-CIP H ER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 283,883, dated August 28, 1883. Application filed March 12, 1882. (No model.)

To-aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, TIMOTHY GRUAZ, a citizen of the United States, residing at Highland, in the county of Madison and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Cembination-Giphers; and I do declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters and figures of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

This invention consists in the employment of a double pair of disks, of card, ivory, silver, nickel, celluloid, or any other convenient material, with alphabets in juxtaposition, and in details thereof. It can be used as well for lengthy correspondence as for telegraphic or telephonic messages, and can be instantly changed into twenty-six different combinations by the proper adjustment of a rubber, thread, pin, or tack and changing the relative position of the letters or characters of the smaller inner disk.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a face View of my improved device. Figs. 2 and 3 are similar views of modifications of the same, and Fig. 4. is a section on the line a x of Fig. 3.

In carrying out my invention I employ a disk, A, which contains all the letters of the alphabet, said letters being arranged in consecutive order from left to right, and which is the key to the meaning of the message. I also employ a smaller disk, A, which is provided with indenturcs a in its periphery, and is adjusted in place by a rubber, thread, pin, or tack. It also contains all the letters of the alphabet, said letters being arranged in any suitable different combinations. For all practical purposes it may be stated that the number of possible combinations is unlimited.

To illustrate the operation of this part of my invention the following example is given. Let it be supposed two persons are corresponding with each other, each of course using the same combination of letters as is on the smaller disk. A, for instance, telegraphs or writes to B F O, which means that he has so adjusted his smaller disk that the letter F on the larger disk is adjoining or directly opposite the letter 0 on the small disk. B adjusts hisldisks the same way, and is now ready to receive the message, which may be as follows, as read upon the larger disk: Rf hp at hfccfx xlamfza otli, and which he finds to read on the smaller disk, Come to-morrow without fail. Bfor some cause changes the combination, and sends the following message: F S, (which indicates that his smaller disk is now so adjusted that the letter Fon the larger disk is adjoining the letter S 011 the smaller one,) when the reading on the larger is 1) al fexgepkr ej kprge, which, on the smaller, means I am starting to-night. The two correspondents may have agreed in advance upon a certain letter, which is always understood between them, and need not be repeated, as above with the letter F. In such a case A needs only dispatch or write 0 and B in his answer S, which would be sufficient for the parties to place the agreed letter (F) in the first case at O and in the second at S. It may even be agreed that A refers to one certain letter and B to another, so that if one cipher should be betrayed the answer would still remain unknown to all but the correspondents. After using the cipher the key is immediately lost to the u nitiated by raising the rubber or thread and disarranging the combination of letters just used. As before stated, each pair of small disks, no matter what combination of letters they present, offers to the parties using them twenty-six different combinations that can be altered at pleasure in an instant without fear of detection.

Small disks, numbered in pairs, can be-kept on hand and be readily forwarded by mail to correspondents whenever a change is deemed necessary. \Vith only a few of the disks parties may be able to send messages all the year round and never use-the same cipher twice.

The foregoing are the primary features of my invention, which are easily understood. For practical purposes, however, by wire and cable, either telegraphic or telephonic, each letter of the larger disk may be made to represent one or more words, either by referencebook, tables, or by. concentric rings outside the letters, as shown in Fig. 2, with a scgmental arrangement of ordinals or numerals in each of two of said rings and intermediatelydisposed data. Four concentric rings, l b, are

' shown on the larger disk, the first inside one being the usual alphabet from left to right; the second one being the words necessary for a shipping order, with necessary figures from one to a million; the third one being for words referring more to a manufacturing order, and the fourthone referring to the drawing of so many pounds, dollars, or francs atstipulated times. The words may be selected or changed at the option of the parties using the cipher to suit their special business wants. Under this form of my invention let it be supposed that the letter agreed upon by the parties to be M,.' in which case it is not necessary to further mention the samefand A may send the following message: u u, (meaning that the smaller disk is so adjusted as to bring the letter 11 immediately opposite the agreedupon letter M, and, it being repeated twice, that the dispatch is to be read on the second inside ring-,) thus: xiklovz, which would read: Ship us'nine hundred thousand bushels of wheat at ninety days, whereupon B might answer u u u, (meaning the same adjustment as to letters, but that the dispatch is to be read on the third inside ring,) thus egvmar, which would read: Your order accepted 5 cannot be filled before three weeks.

In responseAmay send the following message: u u u u, (meaning the same adjustment as to letters, but that the dispatch is-to be read on the fourth or outside ring,) or elmuwx, which would read: Draw on us at ninety days sight twentyfive thousand pounds. As many more concentric rings may be added as the neoessities mayrequire. They may also be colored in different tints to avoid confusion, and even be so mentioned in messages-as, for instance, u white, yellow, red, blue, green, brown, &c. The different rings can also be used in the same message, as follows: Uugfnupi, uuuegkn, uuuugfdpwh, which would read thus: Shipped to you six thousand tons steel rails. Your order was received yesterday. Draw on on us at thirty days sight ten thousand dollars. The first sentence to be read on the second ring, the second on the third ring, the last on the fourth ring. For shortness and economy, by cable, for instance, each letter of the first ring of the larger disk may by agreement be made to represent an entire sentence of ten or more words. Many correspondents could,with a little ingenuity, reduce to twentysix sentencesthe number of letters of the alphabet-their necessary cablegrams. If not convenient to do so, they may use as many multiples of twenty six sentences as they please, always keeping for each set of twentysix sentences a set of cipher-disks, numbered accordingly.

In using the back side of a large disk, with figure under the letter A.

an additional small indented disk behind as well as in front, and both small disks'having different combinations on either face, four different ciphers are thus obtained, each capable of twenty-six different combinations, or in all one hundred and four combinations on a single pair of disks, as shown in Figs. 3 and 4. The combination is numbered with a small To change the key detach the smaller indented disks and reverse their faces.

In sending messages the number of the combination,where several are used, with the position of agreed letter, should be first named at beginning of dispatch, thus: one F, two W, three P, four D, &c., as the case may be.

For ordinary use my invention can be made small enough to be carried in a small pocket? book. For offices it may be found convenient to have them larger and adjusted on a small block or board of soft wood, when combinations may be easily changed and kept in place simply with a pin or tack, while any kind of catch may be used.

Thisinvention secures entire secrecy, with unlimited facilities for sudden changes of the key at both ends of the line whenever deemed necessary, without previous advice to either correspondent and with unerring precision and understanding to both. Every message can instantly be repeated in another key as secret as the first. I slit the larger disk, as at S, to enable the rubber band to engage with the indented edges of the disk A, as seen in Fig. 2.

I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent 1. The combination of pivoted internal disk, A, having letters of the alphabet arranged in a circle thereon, the disk A, having a series of circles extending beyond the diskA, and having the letters of the alphabet in'a circle, and having a series [of words or devices constituting signals arranged in radial lines about said letters, the letters of the alphabet on one of the disks being inregular order and those on the other being irregularly arranged, whereby the combinations of letters and signs on radial lines may be changed, as set forth.

2. The combination of the pivoted disk A, having depressions in its edge, disk A, having slots or perforations outside of circumference of the inner disk, said disk A being of greater diameter and extending outside of disk A, and the elastic cord S, which passes across the face of the disk A and serves as a mean for retaining the disk in place.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

TIMOTHY GRUAZ. 

